Price lower when drilling down on website

[DaveOKC]

Just had an interesting experience on the HAL website.  The price of the cruise I was looking at was $1599 for the category I wanted on the first (overview) page.  When I selected the category and went to the next page, it was only $1449!  Almost 10% less.  Experimented with other categories on this sailing and found that most (but not all) also were lower.  

 

Has anyone else experienced this.

 

And no, I did not use my Mariner number at all during the process.

[Hflors]

Honestly, with HAL's website anything can happen.  For the cruise I booked on I did get a couple of different prices before the dreaded blue circle that keeps going round and round started and I couldn't get out of.  So I finally called HAL and low and behold the price was even lower than what their website said!  Guess which price I picked???   I have all but given up on HAL's website for anything but to check in online and sometimes that doesn't work properly.

[Lido deck main]

16 minutes ago, Hflors said:

Honestly, with HAL's website anything can happen.  For the cruise I booked on I did get a couple of different prices before the dreaded blue circle that keeps going round and round started and I couldn't get out of.  So I finally called HAL and low and behold the price was even lower than what their website said!  Guess which price I picked???   I have all but given up on HAL's website for anything but to check in online and sometimes that doesn't work properly.

I had the same thing happen to me, I had actually called a TA and they had indicated that HAL was offering an OBC, the price the TA quoted me was $3,600 and change, I then called HAL (as nowhere when I did a dummy booking, even adding mariner number) did any mention of the OBC show up on the HAL website, and the price on the dummy booking with mariner number was the same $3,600 and change as the TA had quoted me,  but when I called HAL and spoke with customer service rep the price I was quoted was $3,200 and change, and I got the OBC, so I booked.  This was inside final payment and she even gave a courtesy hold for five days.  I know there are “restrictive” and sometimes “flexible” fares, but as I said this was inside final payment.  HAL rep said it was a special marnier rate, (which I didn’t get with my dummy HAL booking with mariner number),  Go figure.

[HALrunner]

I have been noticing this, too. It is a nice surprise as usually after clicking on something the price is higher not lower!

[kamac56]

I had the same situation two weeks ago.  When I checked the price on our cruise the price was lower for our cat.  Than for fun I checked the price on the Pinnacle suite and was shocked to see it was half the price we paid for our SB.  I called Holland and they claimed they did not see the same thing.  I had a friend do a booking for the same 7046 room and she also came up with 4554.00 total for two.  After I got bumped all over with the price specialist, promised a call back in 24 hours which never happened, so I called again because it was still showing up for that price w/o my mariners number.  They did give us more OBC and said they were adding 100 each for excursions which never happened than and extra dinner which also did not happen.  I don't really care about either of those I just wish they would get their website in order as I am sure their price specialists wish the same lol. What I found interesting was when I talked to one specialist she quoted me a price drop for our room, but than transferred me to a price specialist and they saw a higher price :0.

[DaveOKC]

2 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

Just had an interesting experience on the HAL website.  The price of the cruise I was looking at was $1599 for the category I wanted on the first (overview) page.  When I selected the category and went to the next page, it was only $1449!  Almost 10% less.  Experimented with other categories on this sailing and found that most (but not all) also were lower.  

 

Has anyone else experienced this.

 

And no, I did not use my Mariner number at all during the process.

Update - the fares on the first page are now lower.  The same now as when you go to the second page.  I guess HAL must process price changes in some sort of order?

[3rdGenCunarder]

I had just the opposite experience on the website. On the page where you see itinerary and all "from" prices, I clicked on a cabin grade and the price on the next page was higher, more than just adding in the port tax and fees. 

 

[Cruising-along]

53 minutes ago, kamac56 said:

Than for fun I checked the price on the Pinnacle suite and was shocked to see it was half the price we paid for our SB.  I called Holland and they claimed they did not see the same thing.  I had a friend do a booking for the same 7046 room and she also came up with 4554.00 total for two.  After I got bumped all over with the price specialist, promised a call back in 24 hours which never happened, so I called again because it was still showing up for that price w/o my mariners number.  They did give us more OBC and said they were adding 100 each for excursions which never happened than and extra dinner which also did not happen

I would have sent them a screen shot.  We recently had a similar experience with the Celebrity website.  They had to honor our screenshot and admitted they were having "website issues" (what's new). 😉  

[Krazy Kruizers]

Dave -- love your title -- "drilling down".  Made me laugh.

 

I checked the PS for a future cruise -- did not use Mariner number.  Price the same everywhere.

[Overhead Fred]

This thread peaked my interest so I went to the HAL website to see for myself.

 

For some of the cruises I checked the Explore4 fare was still showing up. I thought that ended long ago!

[whogo]

2 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

I had just the opposite experience on the website. On the page where you see itinerary and all "from" prices, I clicked on a cabin grade and the price on the next page was higher, more than just adding in the port tax and fees. 

 

This has been my experience, although I have not checked the HAL website in ages. (Who needs the aggravation?)

[kamac56]

On ‎3‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 9:31 AM, Cruising-along said:

I would have sent them a screen shot.  We recently had a similar experience with the Celebrity website.  They had to honor our screenshot and admitted they were having "website issues" (what's new). 😉  

I did that and also posted to their facebook page so someone else maybe able to take advantage of it and get further than me.  They just weren't getting it or willing to work with it. I will say after they handed me off to numerous people, placed on hold for upwards of 15 minutes, and still no where I did not become the happiest customer.

[puppycanducruise]

On 3/5/2019 at 12:09 PM, Overhead Fred said:

This thread peaked my interest so I went to the HAL website to see for myself.

 

For some of the cruises I checked the Explore4 fare was still showing up. I thought that ended long ago!

 

It's back!

[OlsSalt]

The new HAL website is a train wreck. End of discussion for me. It is anti-consumer.

[Cruising-along]

1 hour ago, kamac56 said:

I did that and also posted to their facebook page so someone else maybe able to take advantage of it and get further than me.  They just weren't getting it or willing to work with it. I will say after they handed me off to numerous people, placed on hold for upwards of 15 minutes, and still no where I did not become the happiest customer.

Wow, shame on HAL 😞  In our case our Big Box TA went to bat for us with Celebrity, but I like to think they would have come to the same conclusion if we had contacted them on our own.  Within a few hours Celebrity admitted their mistake.

[kochleffel]

I had a different but equally strange experience. I wasn't logged in when I browsed, then logged in to book -- and the fare was higher!

 

Logged out, fare was lower again, and I booked without logging in. Booking was acknowledged by email but never appeared in my record and I eventually called the Mariner office. They thought that by booking without logging in I might have been issued a new Mariner number, but that wasn't the case: same number and they were able to add it manually.

[bennybear]

I had the exact experience with pricing.  After much discussion HAL offered to meet half way and I had screenshots.  Not good enough HAL not good Enough! 

[kamac56]

3 hours ago, bennybear said:

I had the exact experience with pricing.  After much discussion HAL offered to meet half way and I had screenshots.  Not good enough HAL not good Enough! 

We have been given (the first price drop) a great deal of OBC we started with 400.00 and are now at 1000.00 so they have definitely treated us well, plus we have and kept the explore 4 so not sure we could even begin to use more, my complaint is the way they handle their website issues and lack of customer service this time. They are having to give up many things and money they wouldn’t have to if their website worked correctly.  But we gain 😊       we are expecting 10-15” of snow sat we are sooooooooo ready to go, that will put us at 78” of snow so far this season 😳

[bEwAbG]

No company has to honor a website error, so I'm sure they evaluate the offer based on the rates they're getting from others before agreeing to accept a lower price.  Especially on any kind of suite.

 

That said, their website is a pile of hot garbage.  When I booked a trip in the fall, I could get to the screen to select a room only if I was not signed in.  If I signed in, it just had a spinning circle of death.  As soon as I logged out, it would let me proceed. 

[Sue from Canada]

12 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

The new HAL website is a train wreck. End of discussion for me. It is anti-consumer.

I had to go for the first time on the Princess Cruise Line website this week to check on a cruise for a friend.  OMG, it was so superior to HAL and so easy to navigate.  Hello HAL, are you reading this???

[kwbtraveler]

Is it common to see huge price swings on the HAL site?  Last weekend I was looking at a 13 day Med cruise that priced out at around $4600 for 2 adults and 1 child Cat V on Deck 5 (Koningdam).  Now it’s pricing out at $5311.  I can’t believe.  However, if I go out to cruisecomplete it prices out at $4670 with $75 OBC.  Is this common?

[DaveOKC]

Yes it is common - likely due to Explore4 being added, so check on this.

 

[bebe08]

We are frequent Celebrity cruisers, and have only cruised once on HAL back in 2012.  There are many complaints on Celebrity board about their website.  Well the HAL website is way worse in my opinion.  It is extremely frustrating to use, and lacking basic information. 

 

 However, the good news is I was able to take advantage of a HAL website pricing glitch.  We just booked a NE cruise FLL to Montreal.  I was on the HAL website pricing options, and selected an oceanview cabin.  I then changed the cabin # to a Vista to see the price difference, and it didn't change.  I tried to complete the booking and it wouldn't go thru, so I called HAL.  The agent was very helpful and explained reason it wouldn't go thru was because it was an error and that wasn't the correct price, and advised I go ahead and book (no payment due for 24 hours) and then send a screenshot (which thankfully I had) to see if they would honour the lower price.  To my surprise they did!!! Difference in price was about $700 per person!  So we got the Vista suite for price of an Oceanview.  So in this case the headache of dealing with their awful website paid off 🙂